Workers Who Smoke Take More Sick Leave

The survey of 14,000 workers in Sweden between 1988
and 1991 published in the journal Tobacco Control, found
that smokers take 11 days more in sick leave than their
non-smoking counterparts, who took 25 days.

The researchers adjusted for the fact that smokers
tend to choose riskier jobs and have poorer underlying
health, which brought the difference in the number of
sick leave days down to eight, rather than 11.

Another survey conducted in the U.S. and released
in December 2006 also suggests that that workers who
smoke are less productive that workers who don’t, with
nearly half of workers who smoke taking between three and
six breaks a day (See
Survey: Smoke Breaks Burn Up Work Productivity
).